docs: def search(self,
                 q=None,
                 per_page=None,
                 page=None,
                 bbox=None,
                 sort_by="relavance",
                 sort_order="asc"):
          """
          searches the opendata site and returns the dataset results
          """
          url = self._url + "/datasets.json"
          param_dict = {
              "sort_by" : sort_by,
              "f" : "json"
          }
          if q is not None:
              param_dict['q'] = q
          if per_page is not None:
              param_dict['per_page'] = per_page
          if page is not None:
              param_dict['page'] = page
          if bbox is not None:
              param_dict['bbox'] = bbox
          if sort_by is not None:
              param_dict['sort_by'] = sort_by
          if sort_order is not None:
              param_dict['sort_order'] = sort_order
          ds_data =  self._get(url=url,
                      param_dict=param_dict,
                      securityHandler=self._securityHandler,
                      additional_headers=[],
                      proxy_url=self._proxy_url,
                      proxy_port=self._proxy_port)
          return ds_data